In his job as a university machinist, Dale Pomraning has built and fixed earthquake detectors and aurora rockets. But recently he worked on his first object that was once part of a living creature. He and others sliced a six-foot, 100-pound wooly mammoth tusk lengthwise, sort of like a salmon filet.

Caught in the Storm By Robert Emberson Sampling landslides in the field varies in difficulty; some are high up on hillslopes or in the headwaters of steep catchments, while others tumble into easily accessed river valleys. When planning for such sampling, we had mainly anticipated that the weather would not be the biggest obstacle, but that’s what transpired for a major portion of our fieldwork in central Taiwan. The typical …

One of the more unique environments in Dominica are the marine fumeroles (underwater gas seeps) that occur mere steps from the beach. There are a few locations on the island that display this phenomenon; one of which is the appropriately-named Champagne Beach.

Welcome to Dominica, the Nature Island! Located in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean Sea, Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic) is a tropical island with nine active volcanic centers and is a great place to study geology.

First excursion in the morning was by Marcos and Olaf to Level II Finger Lower Cairn to measure its position using the Survey GPS. After that they moved to Level I Finger Lower Cairn to repeat the survey activity.

Day three started the same as day two. Clear sky, moon providing the illumination before dawn, a sharp frost and no wind! Johnny, Olaf and Mark remained in camp to try to get the X8 drone up and flying.

NASA Scientists return to land on Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor after making important observations of phytoplankton with new technology to support current and future satellite observations.

The mapped region is almost the size of the state of Connecticut and falls within the recently expanded boundaries of a U.S. marine protected area. The area is populated with high-density deep-sea corals and sponges and is of great interest to researchers who view it as a stepping-stone between distinct marine ecosystems in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the Central and South Pacific.

The diversity of shapes and sizes in phytoplankton is overwhelming and beautiful. I was able to see the actual individuals that were in the sea surrounding us all the way across the Pacific. Seeing them first-hand made me realize how interrelated all things are on this planet: they may be invisible, but they are important. We are dependent on them and they on us.

As the bright yellow line and blinking strobe slip slowly down into the heaving waves, I feel a familiar sense of unease. Even though I have seventeen successful deployments of free-drifting, neutrally-buoyant sediment traps (or NBSTs) under my belt, it never feels quite normal to see the gray and orange float with its payload of painstakingly-prepared sample collectors sink away from the comparatively safe, solid deck of the ship.

Often, the “small victories” of a research cruise are what add up to a successful expedition. This video gives a great look into what many probably assume is an easy task: recovering samples and getting them on board Research Vessel Falkor.